The Other I Loaded the boat full of weight and people, I bet I was easily getting 5ft. or more at times, but when I got to a certain spot, it always flattened out. I think it was because there was a sand bar there. So my question is, does the wake get smaller in really shallow water? I really think it made a difference when we went deeper. It sounds funny, but if anyone knows anything about this please let me know if this is true or not.

I believe the cut off is somewhere around 10 feet. If you've got at least 10 feet, your wake should be at full strength. Anything less and the wake size will be reduced because the ground interferes with the water motion.

we ride at paradise lakes outside of bakersfield and there are two lakes that are joined at the end, one is 14-15' deep and the other is 4-6' deep and the deeper lake produces about a 50% bigger wake. We always wait for our turn on the deep one but the skate is fun on the shallow lake too. And on the flip side the skiers prefer the shalow lake because they want a smaller wake.

Thanks guys, that helps me out a lot. My lake is super shallow, especially in front of my cabin, this information will definately help me out a lot. I am sure to land a lot more tricks a lot more consistantly.

Another question, my friends sometimes try to put more weight on one side of the boat, thinking that will make the wake on that side bigger. I would think that to get the wake to be the optimal size for both sides you should evenly distribute it. Does loading a side a little extra even make a difference?

Loading one side will change the shape of the wake on that side. It will clean it up or wash it out. The equalivent of truning the boat one direction. I would never suggest weighting only one side for wakeboarding. If you do your riding will suffer because you will only be comfortable jumping from one side. Weight the boat evenly and progress with your tricks from both sides.

I weight my boat unevenly - to compensate for the passengers on the left side of the boat. My goal is to get the wake as even as possible though, so the extra weight on the driver's side is really just making up for the fact that I usually have more people sitting on the passenger side.

I ride in the sea and when the tide is going out we have some shallow spots. Basically above 6 ft the wake is fine but below this it drops away and at around 3ft it goes completley. If you know where to drive we can enjoy 20ft plus water all day but you need to follow the channel. A depth sounder will help.